What Should i Buy ?

[Airbender1]

Hello All i hope you and your family all doing well in these darks time of COVID-19
Please be safe and stay bless until it is over.

OK so here is my issue and please forgive my poor English writing skills and grammar

I live in a small Studio APT basement unit and I was using the COX Communications Unit everything is fine except i been renting it for the past 2 years and fees add up so I decide to buy my own.

1- I bought from amazon ARRIS SURFboard SB8200 DOCSIS 3.1 Gigabit Cable Modem
2- Friend of mine give me a Router for free it is NetGear D6200 – WiFi DSL Modem Router.
after play with for 2 days i was able to downgrade it to firmware D6200_V1.1.00.05-1.00.05NA and after complete reboot, it worked like a charm

Issue:
my 2G and 5G wifi keeps dropping and i lose network connections on a daily basis
The wired network seems to be solid and no issue that i discover yet. but i am having Major connections issues that for sure

My Home Setup:
1- Modem
1- Router
1- Gigabit 8 Port switch
10- Computers in total ( wired and wireless )
2 -A gaming console
4- amazon echo
1- Google home mini
4_ wyze camera
1- Amazon Clock
1- Wifi light
5- wifi adapters for smart home
1- Amazon fire TV
3- network printer different model
5- tablets
2- phones
and a few other electronics that require internet

Possible addons:
1- 4GB switch for more wired internet
Few more other smart home devices once they go on sales

I believe between my wired and wifi setup i am breaking the camelback and this router is not able to support my setup period.

I looked around and so much been out there between mash network and expensive solutions but i am not sure which will be the best for me

Here are some examples of Routers I will researching
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ES6ZQ7O/?tag=snbforums-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0154URN3M/?tag=snbforums-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N6ETMVT/?tag=snbforums-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086ZN5R6P/?tag=snbforums-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086ZNJ1J2/?tag=snbforums-20

These are some but I am open to suggestion and I am open to even try to fix the current FREE router I have if that is a possibility ( save me money )

Please advise

 

[thiggins]

How do you fit all that into a "small" studio apartment?

I would guess you have a lot of nearby networks. So first step would be to experiment and see if you can find a better channel. Set your 2.4 GHz bandwidth to 20 MHz and use only channels 1,6,11.

Next step is to see if there is a pattern to the "disconnects" (time of day, application in use, # of active devices). And when you say "disconnect" is the Wi-Fi connection actually dropped or is the device still connected, but can't reach the internet?

 

[Airbender1]

How do you fit all that into a "small" studio apartment?

I would guess you have a lot of nearby networks. So first step would be to experiment and see if you can find a better channel. Set your 2.4 GHz bandwidth to 20 MHz and use only channels 1,6,11.

Next step is to see if there is a pattern to the "disconnects" (time of day, application in use, # of active devices). And when you say "disconnect" is the Wi-Fi connection actually dropped or is the device still connected, but can't reach the internet?

Hello, the WiFi actually drops and the phone or laptop or fire TV will have no connection. So I have to manually select wifi SSID then it will connect.

 

[RMerlin]

If both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz have the same dropout issue, then I would look either at the location of the router, or possibly an issue with the router itself (note BTW that it's really a modem/router combo, not just a pure router).

When wifi drops, check the LEDs on the Netgear. See if your router might possibly be in the middle of a reboot, as dropping both radios at once might indicate a hardware issue causing the router to reboot. Check if the web interface shows any kind of log or uptime report to display whether the router had crashed and rebooted.

 

[Klueless]

Given the excellent advice you've already received it's almost pointless for me to chime in ... but;

I'm not sure why you replaced the modem? "Usually" the Internet Service Provider (ISP) provides the modem "free of charge", it's the "router" that often has the device charge. As a novice I like using the ISP's modem. (If I'm troubleshooting I can plug a device directly into the modem. If the problem persists then it's likely an ISP problem or if the problem goes away then it's likely me.)

Location is important. Just getting your wireless off of the floor and out of the corner can make a significant difference. But your old ISP setup worked just fine and I assume your replacement is in the same location?

Do you still have your old ISP wireless router? If so I do assume you have powered it off? And, if you still have your old ISP router, take a look at how it was set up. Pay particular attention to wireless settings; channel and width.

I've used "auto" before on 2.4 GHz and sometimes neighboring equipment will make my router change channels. While that can be a good thing I sometimes have client equipment that doesn't make the corresponding change and they "hang" until I reconnect them.

So the channel 1, 6, or 11 is good advice. You can simply take a guess (trial and error) or download a WiFi analyzer (e.g., Acrylic for Windows), look at competing signal levels and make an educated choice.

But that doesn't explain the problem with 5 GHz. You're using "used equipment". Equipment you already had to "downgrade" (why?) to use. I'm kinda left wondering why your friend got rid of it? Was he having trouble? Maybe it is hardware?

I'm looking at your list. You've a "small" apartment and you were happy with the ISP router so I'm not seeing a need for the MESH systems you've listed? Given your device count go through your list again and maybe look to see which ones support multi-stream / MU-MIMO?

I know nothing about Tenda but, for your device count, I'd go for the 1900 vs. the 1200. That Netgear you listed has some great specs but you might save a couple bucks if you went with its AC equivalent rather than the AX?

As an aside I've a personal bias towards all things Asus. I like their Real Time Traffic Monitor and their support for multiple SSIDs and Guest SSIDs. I've used and been happy with my N66U, AC68U, AC86U and even my Blue Cave (I have several sites).

And do consider keeping your ISP's modem and just getting a WiFi router.

BTW, what service speeds are you paying for and what speeds do you actually see (over Ethernet, 2.4 and 5 GHz) when things are working?

Good Luck!

 

[Trip]

@Airbender1 - How fast is your COX plan? Sounds like the SB8200 is running just fine? Beyond troubleshooting the D6200 to death, simplest fix might be a new all-in-one router. Unless you have special requirements, I'd lean towards an Asus that supports Merlin for stability, like an AX58U or AX88U, or if you're more skilled and desire more of a pro-level device, a UniFi Dream Machine. Either way, you'll probably have to play the game of channel analyzing and manual selection, for both 2.4 and 5Ghz, given the level of channel interference around your apartment.

Another route would be a business-class AP with enough intelligence to automatically select the right channel all the time, combined with re-purposing the D6200 as a wired router only (factory-reset, load the latest firmware from Netgear, then disable wireless). For the AP, I'd buy a working-pull Ruckus R5oo off eBay (usually $50-75), and load the Unleashed firmware, with ChannelFly enabled on 5Ghz and Background Scanning on 2.4Ghz. You'd then wire the R500 to the router, configure once, then set and forget, with a very high likelihood you won't have to manually monkey with channel selection thereafter.

TL;DR - Contrary to just blindly following the 1/6/11 channel paradigm in 2.4Ghz, in reality, all three of those channels will likely be borderline-unusable in an environment like yours, due primarily to your (many) neighbors operating their own 2.4GHz APs, but also non-802.11 sources of interference as well. Consequently, those channels may actually be worse choices than even certain overlapped channels, which may, in certain circumstances, actually have more capacity. A good-enough AP will be able to determine which channel is actually most usable, not only by measuring simple signal strength (as most consumer and lower-level SMB APs are limited to) but also by measuring actual airspace usability and judging, in real time, how efficacious it would or wouldn't be to switch to any given channel, based on intelligence about the entire client population's ability to cope with the change (or not). That is what you get when you run a higher grade of AP, and in doing so, in many instances you actually can have much better overall wifi behavior in very crowded airspace, even when it may not appear possible when using automatic channel provisioning with less-intelligent products. Not saying auto-channel is the silver bullet in all instances, but it very much can be as long as you're using a good enough product.

 

[thiggins]

@Trip So you're saying large venues and campuses use 2.4 GHz frequency plans that allow for using channels other than 1,6,11?

 

[Trip]

@Trip So you're saying large venues and campuses use 2.4 GHz frequency plans that allow for using channels other than 1,6,11?

No, I'm not saying that at all, or at least I hope it doesn't come off that way where a person would infer that all larger campuses would just allow their APs to always choose, in the wake of likely requiring a static channel map. What I am saying is that in certain circumstances, it can actually be advantageous to let intelligent-enough APs choose their own airspace -- such as in an apartment, with a single AP... aka, the scenario we have here. I also added a closing note (probably after you replied), regarding auto-channel not always being the silver bullet.

 

[L&LD]

@Trip, I can see how that would work well. Every AP within range, that is being controlled by the same controller or algorithm would make the optimum decisions possible.

 

[Trip]

@Trip, I can see how that would work well. Every AP within range, that is being controlled by the same controller or algorithm would make the optimum decisions possible.

That's the idea, yes. Of course, in practice, it doesn't always work out that way (and hardly ever does at big scale -- thus Tim's reply), which is why many a wifi tech adopts the manual approach in conventional channel space as the least of all evils. But that doesn't mean there aren't situations where auto channel isn't at least worth taking a look at -- with an intelligent-enough product, a proper topology and a client environment to suit, it can be quite workable, dare I say even superior. That does probably lend itself to smaller-scale WLANs, as opposed to universities, for sure.

 

[coxhaus]

I guess you know Arris SB8200 rev 4 modem the newer hardware was removed from gig tier by Spectrum, There seems to be a problem in the new hardware.

 

[Trip]

Good info, cox. Do you know if it's firmware-fixable, or is it low-level enough that a whole new hardware revision will be needed?

 

[coxhaus]

No. But Spectrum had a setup for the old SB8200 that worked and it took years for them to approve the original SB8200. So now how long will we have to wait?

PS
I lied. I just checked.
5/11/2020 Update:

Arris SB8200 Rev 4 (re-)added to Gig tier